Russia secures uranium fuel at Romanian site

Susan B. Glasser, Washington Post

Published
4:00 am PDT, Monday, September 22, 2003

2003-09-22 04:00:00 PDT Moscow -- Russia took back control of 30 pounds of weapons-grade uranium from an insecure Soviet-era nuclear reactor facility in Romania on Sunday, carrying out a long-planned secret operation that was paid for by the United States in an effort to mount a pre-emptive strike against the threat of nuclear terrorism.

The uranium -- potentially enough to make a nuclear bomb -- was taken from its storage site at the Pitesti Institute for Nuclear Research, west of Bucharest, Romania's capital, and flown Sunday night to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, where it will be converted into a form of uranium that cannot be used to make weapons, according to U.S. officials.

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, whose department provided the $400, 000 necessary for the operation, called it "a major accomplishment" for eliminating a terrorist threat posed by "one of the top sites that needs securing."

Several outside experts said Sunday's move, while welcome, underscored how slowly international authorities had moved to deal with an obvious terrorist threat. Little more than a year ago, the United States and Russia participated in the first such joint operation when 100 pounds of weapons-grade uranium was removed from an aging Soviet-built research reactor in Yugoslavia.

"I give them two cheers," said former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., who with billionaire Ted Turner co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative group that put up $5 million last August to remove the weapons-grade uranium from the site near Belgrade. "But we just need to realize that the pace at which we're moving is not nearly rapid enough."

Following the Yugoslav operation last summer, State Department officials compiled a list of 24 overseas reactors that use weapons-grade nuclear fuel and are considered vulnerable. Despite assurances of quick action, efforts to persuade host governments to surrender the uranium have progressed slowly, experts say.

Also complicating matters has been a U.S. proposal that would spell out terms under which Russia would agree to receive fuel from Soviet-era research reactors built in other countries. Russia has not yet approved the agreement, according to Energy Department officials, and until it is signed, each operation will be negotiated separately.

"Even if we succeed at the current rate of once a year, it would take a quarter-century to get this done," said Matthew Bunn, a Harvard University nuclear nonproliferation expert. "Since 9/11, we don't have that kind of time."

He said there were more than 130 research reactors in 40 countries using highly enriched uranium fuel like the kind in Romania -- a serious threat because of the vulnerability to theft. "Highly enriched uranium is the easiest type to make a bomb for terrorists," he said.

Several bills pending in Congress would establish a more comprehensive program to secure weapons-grade uranium at such vulnerable facilities.

"If we spend about $50 million a year for five years, we could eliminate some of the most urgent nuclear terrorism threats we've faced," Bunn said.

Abraham said he recognized that some critics would not be satisfied with the pace of cooperation with Russia on nonproliferation. "Naturally, there are going to be people who say, 'It's still not fast enough, you're not moving fast enough,' " he said. "Sometimes it seems no matter how fast you move, someone will move the goalpost."